thriving
Americanadjective
-
prospering or doing well; highly successful.
The Arts Commission plans to expand its thriving ArtSmart program into all 21 of the city’s elementary schools.
-
growing or developing vigorously; flourishing.
When I worked on her farm ten years ago there was still a thriving goat herd, but she’s been unable to keep it up on her own.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of thriving
Explanation
Something that's thriving is doing very well. You have a thriving cupcake business if you can hardly bake enough to keep up with your customers' orders. Use the adjective thriving to describe something that's healthy — like your new puppy — or profitable and busy — like your dad's car dealership. A thriving Mexican food truck always has a long line in front of it, and a thriving publisher puts out many popular books. Thriving comes from the verb thrive, and its Old Norse root word, þrifask, which means both "thrive" and "grasp to oneself," from þrifa, "to clutch or grasp."
Vocabulary lists containing thriving
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
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State of the Union Address 2016
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Ethan Frome
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The Twin Cities are home to a thriving food scene, welcoming people and no shortage of things to do.
From Salon • Jun. 11, 2026
"In 1994 the soccer market was very nascent in the US, and today we have thriving professional leagues, and some of the world's great stadiums," US Soccer chief executive JT Batson told BBC Sport.
From BBC • Jun. 9, 2026
Silvia Gil, who grew up in the neighborhood, says it used to be a thriving commercial district with stores selling everything from fresh vegetables to children’s clothes.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 7, 2026
Onstage, the frontman of Death Cab for Cutie and the Postal Service was thriving as his two bands toured together to mark the 20th anniversaries of Death Cab’s “Transatlanticism” and the Postal Service’s “Give Up.”
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 5, 2026
As they climbed, Babi told them that Bamiyan had once been a thriving Buddhist center until it had fallen under Islamic Arab rule in the ninth century.
From "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
